The Rs 11,400-crore bank-fraud case against billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi will bankruptcy in the court of law like Bofors and 2G trials, his defense lawyer Vijay Aggarwal insisted in an exclusive interview with India Today.

Aggarwal, who defended high-profile suspects in the telecom scandal, claimed his customer named in the alleged PNB scam was not convicted.

“All allegations (against Modi) are wrong,” the lawyer said. “If somebody has devoted a fraud, why would he leave movable assets worth 5,600-crore, which the ED has taken away, behind?”

“If he wanted to commit a fraud and he wanted to run away, then like Vijay Mallya, he would have taken everything abroad. Why would he leave diamond and jewellery worth Rs 5,600 crore in India, which the ED itself claims to, have seized?” argued Aggarwal.

The PNB case against his customer, the lawyer claimed would finally fall flat during the trial.

“Nobody is seeing at it rationally. This is what happens in all the cases. That happened in the Bofors case, that happened in the 2G case and it happened in some of the coal cases. And this is going to happen in this case also. Nobody has looked at it rationally,” Aggarwal remarked. “How much does it take for a diamond merchant to convert it (assets) into diamonds and take them away? He would have closed everything, converted them into diamonds and run away.”

“If somebody has devoted a fraud, why would he leave movable assets worth 5,600-crore, which the ED has taken away, behind. If he wanted to commit a fraud and he wanted to run away, then like Vijay Mallya, he would have taken everything abroad”

Nirav Modi’s defense lawyer

LAWYER REFUSES TO DISCLOSE MODI’S WHEREABOUTS

Aggarwal, who refused to disclose the whereabouts of Nirav Modi, maintained he has spoken with the suspect on the phone. He, however, downplayed the FIR against his client in connection with the bank fraud as a “sketchy document”.

“Charges have not yet been levelled. It’s only an FIR. And the FIR is ever a very sketchy document. At the moment, I don’t know what is the under the belt of prosecution,” Aggarwal maintained. He said he would arrange his defence once the ED had filed its complaint and the prosecuting agency its chargesheet.

Asked about accusations that Modi siphoned off the funds, Aggarwal again cited the outcome of the case involving 2G licenses.

“It is very, very easy to say. Proving it in the court of law is different. In 2G case, we heard about the Rs 200-crore bribe, where is that?” he asked.

Aggarwal, however, raised questions over the conduct of bank authorities supervising suspect transactions.

“Somehow, it’s only a question of bank extending the credit, without collateral security that banks do for lots of people. There are huge bank charges. Directors of the bank didn’t know how this branch was making so much of money through bank charges? If the messages were sent without anybody’s knowledge, why is the bank charging bank charges on that?” he wondered. “All bills that have been discounted have a dark register number. Everything has been entered into books of the bank.”

The lawyer insisted he was able to successfully fight familiar cases before because of what he called lack of credible evidence.

“In 2G, every media house gave the ‘facts’, and you know what happened. In the Bofors case, they gave all the ‘facts’, what happened? In the railway scam, we got bail in 10 days,” Aggarwal said.